Nihal Saad Zaghloul is an Egyptian WLUML networker. Here, she talks to Christopher Reeve of Community Times.

Nihal Saad Zaghloul is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Literally. After meeting with Community Times in a Zamalek coffee shop, Zaghloul was making a U-turn, when a young rookie driver, unfamiliar with Cairo’s traffic conventions, drove into her path. Zaghloul slammed her car’s brakes, but contact was inevitable. Luckily, there was no major damage, except for a flat tire. A policeman arrived at the scene, and all parties agreed that the tire simply needed to be changed. The rookie driver, a young man, did not know how to change a tire.

“I’ll do it,” Zaghloul offered. The police officer objected: what would people think if they saw a woman changing a tire as men looked on?

20 Feb 14 - A proposal to toughen legislation on the practice of “bride stealing” in Kazakstan has reignited debate on a practice that has proved difficult to tackle. Svetlana Romanovskaya, a member of parliament from the ruling Nur Otan party, wants to see stricter measures to criminalise abductions that lead to forced marriages.

In a typical case, a woman is grabbed off the street by male relatives of the would-be groom – who might be a complete stranger – taken by force to his home, and held there against her will until she agrees to marry him. Fear of being shamed will often lead her own family to come to terms with the forced marriage.

(Baghdad) – Iraq’s Council of Ministers should withdraw a new draft Personal Status Law and ensure that Iraq’s legal framework protects women and girls in line with its international obligations. The pending legislation would restrict women’s rights in matters of inheritance and parental and other rights after divorce, make it easier for men to take multiple wives, and allow girls to be married from age nine.